JERUSALEM — Israel on Sunday declared Guenter Grass persona non grata, deepening a spat with the Nobel-winning author over a poem that deeply criticized the Jewish state and suggested it was as much a danger as Iran.

The dispute with Grass, who only late in life admitted to a Nazi past, has drawn new attention to strains in Germany's complicated relationship with the Jewish state – and also focused unwelcome light on Israel's own secretive nuclear program.

In a poem called "What Must Be Said" published last Wednesday, Grass, 84, criticized what he described as Western hypocrisy over Israel's nuclear program and labeled the country a threat to "already fragile world peace" over its belligerent stance on Iran.

The poem has touched a raw nerve in Israel, where officials have rejected any moral equivalence with Iran and been quick to note that Grass admitted only in a 2006 autobiography that he was drafted into the Waffen-SS Nazi paramilitary organization at age 17 in the final months of World War II.

Grass' subsequent clarification that his criticism was directed at Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, not the country as a whole, did little to calm the outcry.

On Sunday, Israel's interior minister, Eli Yishai, announced that Grass would be barred from Israel, citing an Israeli law that allows him to prevent entry to ex-Nazis. But Yishai made clear the decision was related more to the recent poem than Grass' actions nearly 70 years ago.

"If Guenter wants to spread his twisted and lying works, I suggest he does this from Iran, where he can find a supportive audience," Yishai said.

Israeli Foreign Minister Avigdor Lieberman accused Grass of anti-Semitism.

The uproar has touched upon some of the most sensitive issues in modern-day Israel: the Holocaust, Iran's alleged pursuit of nuclear weapons and Israel's own illicit nuclear program that is widely believed to have produced an arsenal of bombs.
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/04/08/gunter-grass-israel_n_1410979.html

Here is an unofficial translation of Guenter Grass' poem, "What Must Be Said."


Why do I stay silent, conceal for too long

What is obvious and has been

Practiced in war games, at the end of which we as survivors

Are at best footnotes.

It is the alleged right to the first strike

That could annihilate the Iranian people-

Subjugated by a loud-mouth

And guided to organized jubilation-

Because in their sphere of power,

It is suspected, a nuclear bomb is being built.

Yet why do I forbid myself

To name that other country

In which, for years, even if secretly,

There has been a growing nuclear potential at hand

But beyond control, because not accessible to inspections?

The universal concealment of these facts,

To which my silence subordinated itself,

I sense as an incriminating lie

And coercion--the punishment is promised

As soon as it is ignored;

The verdict of "anti-Semitism" is familiar.

Now, though, because in my country

Which time and again has sought and confronted

Its very own crimes

That is without comparison

In turn on a purely commercial basis, if also

With nimble lips calling it a reparation, declares

A further U-boat should be delivered to Israel,

Whose specialty consists of guiding all-destroying warheads to where the existence

Of a single atomic bomb is unproven,

But fear wishes to be of conclusive evidence,

I say what must be said.

But why have I stayed silent until now?

Because I thought my origin,

Afflicted by a stain never to be expunged

Forbade this fact as pronounced truth

To be told to the nation of Israel, to which I am bound

And wish to stay bound.

Why do I say only now,

Aged and with my last ink,

The nuclear power Israel endangers

The already fragile world peace?

Because it must be said

What even tomorrow may be too late to say;

Also because we--as Germans burdened enough--

Could become suppliers to a crime

That is foreseeable, wherefore our complicity

Could not be redeemed through any of the usual excuses.

And granted: I am silent no longer

Because I am tired of the West's hypocrisy;

In addition to which it is to be hoped

That this will free many from silence,

Appeal to the perpetrator of the recognizable danger

To renounce violence and

Likewise insist

That an unhindered and permanent control

Of the Israeli nuclear potential

And the Iranian nuclear sites

Be authorized through an international agency

By the governments of both countries.

Only this way are all, the Israelis and Palestinians,

Even more, all people, that in this

Region occupied by mania

Live cheek by jowl among enemies,

And also us, to be helped.
http://www.durangoherald.com/article/20120408/API/1204080690/Guenter-Grass-poem:-%27What-Must-Be-Said%27

so they don't want a Jew hating nazi in Israel...

And where does it state that?

Just be glad you were never drafted into the SS at age 17.......... I imagine if he didnt go he would have been shot eh? Its realy intelectualy retarded even to make a comment like that when it is evident by the article, if you took the time to read it clearly stated.....

so your a better person to say who Isreal allows in their country? a nazi is a nazi, whether they write poems or not...

I thought they were the only democracy in the middle east? cant take a little criticism at all can they? even in the form of a poem......

just about all countries in the middle east seem to have a problem with it, but not my concern. doesn't really affect us, does it?

It effects us because we fund Israel about 8 million a day plus interest. Its not like they are realy an independent country.

You can add to the list that if Israel attacks Iran I wont be able to afford to buy the gas I will need to work and something tells me that will be the least of my worries.

Iran: World's worst state sponsor of terrorism

Israel: World's worst state victim of terrorism

Iran: Sodomy, apostosy, blasphemy punishable by death (Hadd crimes)

Israel: All religions are welcomed and respected and religious tolerance is protected

Iran: after the Iranian revolution, female government workers were forced to observe Islamic dress code; women were barred from becoming judges; beaches and sports were sex-segregated; the legal age of marriage for girls was reduced to 9 (later raised to 13); and married women were barred from attending regular schools

Israel: Women have equal rights

Iran: Constantly threatens to wipe Israel off the map, blames US and Israel for perverting the mideast and Islam as the Great and little Satan respectively

Israel: Only wishes not to be attacked and threatens no one and only fights in defensive efforts

what are your gas concerns if/when Iran starts a nuclear war?

Why would they commit suicide? Iam sure if they are attacked or invaded as the US has done to many countries they would defend themselves so lets just let them live their lives sell the oil and run their country the way that fits their traditions.

The current state of the western democracies isnt realy anything to brag about.

i think it has been proven over and over that they don't mind killing themselves in the name of allah.... with nukes, they can do it at a faster pace...

Israel would have to use one of its 300 Warheads

yea, they're ready too...

I am not sure if or when Iran has attacked this country please provide details........

And blow their cover

I've really grown tired of Nazis who claim to have performed their "duties" under duress. They should all have been imprisoned or shot at the end of WWII. People don't always do as they're told, often for good reason. Nazis have no legitimatge excuse for their actions.

Do two of you on here really think its some sort of crime that Israel does not want to let a Nazi into there country?